Former Epic president Mike Capps recently made headlines after a surprise appearance on stage at GDC on behalf of Unity, during a conference where both Unreal Engine and Source 2 joined Unity as free game development toolsets.
Capps also has had plenty to say about the incoming wave of virtual reality headsets that are in development at Oculus, Valve/HTC, and Sony (to name but three).
Speaking with GameIndustry, Capps outlined the reasons why he's still a VR sceptic, despite thinking that the tech is cool. His first concerns are regarding the cost of the equipment for early adopters, and how the act of putting on a headset might put off mainstream consumers:
"There's so little tolerance at the consumer level for that kind of an investment," he said. "And I think one of the things I'm most curious about - you look at 3DTV as a super easy to use technology that is really unfettered. Just a pair of polarized glasses and people didn't use it because it wasn't worth the trouble."
Capps continued: "The content difference was there. 3D Avatar looks way better than non-3D Avatar... If slipping on a pair of flicker glasses, is too much trouble - then the idea of, 'Ok I'm going to put on my head mount rig and fire up my liquid cooled PC in order to make it happen' [isn't likely to take off]. I hope it happens but I think it's going to be a while before my mom does that."
For anyone who's already tried VR, especially the earliest incarnations of the tech, nausea is a genuine concern. Capps thinks that designers need to ensure that the tech is right from the very start:
"As Carmack said in his talk, 'We ship a bunch of these Gear VRs and have an 80 percent return rate and everyone's throwing up and then that's the end. It's done. No one's going to buy it next round.' So please, gosh, guys, don't screw it up. Take all the time you need."
Finally, the former Epic president explained that he thinks that the closed-off environment might work against the tech, and that things like Microsoft's planned AR headsets might have an advantage over VR with people who don't want to shut themselves off completely from the real world:
"Just the fact that I could be using that in the room with my kids and my kids could be playing with their toys... I could be keeping an eye on them while I'm playing, like I do when I'm on an Xbox, like I do when I'm on my iPhone, but if I slap a headset on, I'm no longer dad. That's not allowed, right? So there's a huge number of use cases where people cannot afford to shut out the world even though it's a wonderful way to maximize your entertainment experience."
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